Tag: Ayton 2015

Clear-headed and mentally razor-sharp military geniuses prepare the table and their respective battle plans for the big ‘off’ on the Sunday; it was to be a mighty clash:

Below – our glorious campaign organiser (and all credit to him for that, because it was excellent). However… to think that we put this man in charge of our vulnerable left flank after its initial commander had to depart.. Well, we got what we deserved.

It may look impregnable, but Iain found it’s weaknesses. Unfortunately he was in charge:

Paul deployed a colourful array of troops:

Simon’s massed Sepoys got to build a nice long wall to defend:

Meanwhile, at the other end of the 30 foot table, the Medetian army (and navy) deployed to defend the 3rd key position.

Our side’s collective failure on Saturday meant that we had to hold all 3 key locations throughout the Sunday battle. The loss of any of them would mean defeat. From left to right our line was; Pete, Paul, Simon and me. We set out our defences and loaded them with men. Our combined reserves were to be a shared resource. After a quick rendition of ‘Men of Harlech’ we folded our arms and waited.

It was time for the enemy to arrive..

Andy setting up the Savage Swans and their colleagues for another long march. He had a hell of a battle with Paul’s lot and neither side seemed to yield an inch all day (apart from when Andy’ units fled).

To borrow from old Nosey, trying to tell the story of a wargame with thousands of figures and 180 square feet of table is like trying to tell the story of a ball. It can’t be done. So, some general snippets and pics..

Medetian light troops deploy to strengthen the extreme right flank as Bob’s forces appear in the distance.

Paul’s (the other Paul) asiatic hordes drove a wedge between Simon and me, so we tried to plug the gap with reserve cavalry.

General shot of the battlefield after an hour or two.

Buff somehow steered his unsteerable giant nellies right across the table and through my decoy Chasseurs. We killed 2 out of 3, but were swept away. Heroic stuff but bloody.

Al Cekic killed men in pith helmets and then targeted the behemoths, before all its crew were shot down:

The Medetian Navy says ‘none shall pass’, although in an Italian accent:

Fortunately the Medetians were blazing away and seeing off their attackers:

Although the Grenadier Guard was called on to fill a dangerous gap at one point:

With the Medetians holding firm and dealing with all-comers on the right, and events too painful and inexplicable to photograph taking place on the right, Simon had to hold in the centre against enormous odds as Paul’s masses closed in:

I believe he did so by the thickness of a cartridge case, but boy was it close:

In the end, we’d lost one and held two positions, so our evil plan was undone and we’d have to make peace or slink off to plot a dastardly return. One day, Phetaea will be ours, all ours!

The other table on Saturday saw a massive clash as the Phetreaen rebels attacked at the Pass of Ishta, and the Convent defended by the savage nuns of the local order (don’t ask). Technically these rebels were my allies (although I doubt they’d have approved of our plans for a general take-over and massive canal project) so I was wishing them well, but a victory with heavy casualties wouldn’t go amiss..

Mwahahaha, etc.

Simon and Pete took charge of a LOT of natives, everything from Arabs to Zulus, and, well, charged forward – as you do. They even got to recycle dead units I think, and you’d think that would be enough. But no, they couldn’t quite break their opponents, or capture their objective buildings either. There was no shortage of effort though.

I didn’t spot the Lucozade bottle when I took the pics, sorry.

Gary provided a Zulu horde to bulk up the rebels:

Simon tried repeatedly to capture the convent, scaling the walls each time and duking it out with the tough old dears inside, only to be chucked back out each time. Every time I wandered past looking for a cup of tea or a bit of cake, there they were, clinging to the outside of the building like a zombie horde, but the defences were just too tough.

It was a tremendous looking battle though..

Many Mexicans fought, and quite a lot died. But there was no huge massacre to repeat the scenes of two years ago. I guess the rebs didn’t have enough artillery for that!

Mexican horse artillery – are they leaving their mates to get slaughtered??

The Mexican lancers even reached the enemy this time – nice one Ken!

So, on two battlefields the combined forces of rebellion and capitalist imperialist oppression (that’s us) had failed. Oh well, it would all be settled at the capital on Sunday.

The ACW – In a BIG Way

Alongside the two campaign-related games, there was also a fantastic 54mm ‘toy soldier’ ACW game put on by Tim H and Tim W. I popped over as often as I could to keep up with progress, but am ashamed to find I only took one picture, early on the first day. Sorry guys, it wasn’t through lack of appreciation.

The figure collections only came together this year I believe, yet there were very large Union and Confederate armies marching towards each other for a big clash. The variety of poses, and the overall sense of motion and activity in the figures, made it a wonderful spectacle and the players seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

The May Bank Holiday weekend has, for the last 4 years, meant a game and beer-fest get-together of LAW forum members at Ayton in Yorkshire. This year’s event was a morphing of some of the events and forces from previous years, resulting in a fictitious late 19th century colonial clash in the deserts of Phetraea (next door to Byzarbia for those who’ve heard of it!)

Most people arrived on the Friday for what was to be a couple of day’s battle, following a lead-up of a couple of months of pre-game campaigning, mis-communication and dastardly deeds between the players, all very well run by Iain.

It was a brilliant weekend, with excellent gaming and great company as always. The result never really matters (good job too this time!), just the taking part and contributing to the culmination-of-the-campaign narrative. Thanks to everyone for making it such a good time, and it was nice to see a couple of unexpected faces who made last minute efforts to get there.

Even more importantly – get well soon Peeler, you were very much missed over the weekend.

I’m already looking forward to next year’s event, and the one after that which we’ve laid tentative plans for too.

I’ll post pictures of day 1 here, and of the other tables, and day 2, on a couple of other posts to keep things manageable.

Day 1 – The Battle of Leptis

We shouldn’t have fought a battle here at all, but I’ll not knock a man when he’s down. Too much. Let’s just say that Lord Peeler must have been several sheets to the wind when he dillied and dallied and thought this was the capital, forcing Iain to divert some of my force to Leptis to help bail him out. Still, we had to fight somewhere. 🙂

Here, then, is the Saturday table. My Medetians attacked alongside Peeler’s troops (ably handled by Phil as an emergency stand-in). Our objectives were the two buildings beside the harbour and the railway respectively, although the enemy (Andy and Gary) began mostly deployed in the town of Leptis which they’d fortified before our arrival.

Phil and I agreed a plan, which Peeler and I had discussed the day before, and set out to keep the enemy busy on the left and in the centre with light troops and the odd probing attack, while Phil assaulted at full strength along the railway on the right. We managed to draw out most of the enemy reserves by the end, and I had some sneakiness planned for the left flank for late in the game, by which time hopefully Andy would not be expecting anything…

Needless to say my ‘surprise’ dawn attack was anticipated and interrupted by Andy’s American Indian natives who popped up as we approached the first bit of high ground! At least they didn’t all drop out of a single tree this time.. Undaunted, we charged in, had an inconclusive melee where both sides fell back, and managed to snatch the position when Andy failed the Indian’s control roll.

The Cossack skirmishers snuck about and hid a lot, but did some fighting before the end.

Al Cekic (‘The Hammer’) lined up on the harbour building and did a bit of damage to the Altfritzenbergers, but it was a tough nut to crack.

After some delay while we sorted ourselves out, the first attack went in, but although the Sepoys did their job and soaked up enemy firepower, they couldn’t break into the building and both they and the regular unit in support were forced to withdraw to avoid being wiped out. This upset timings for a later co-ordinated attack somewhat but at least we were keeping Andy occupied while Phil tried (repeatedly) to storm the railway station and the train parked inconveniently in front of it.

My Jezzails spent the bulk of the day sniping at Andy’s guys, mostly ineffectually at the harbour garrison (although we did whittle them down a bit), but also had some fun winning a long range duel with some artillery and forcing them to re-deploy out of sight.

Finally, with only a couple of turns remaining and completely out of the blue (for Andy, at least) my floating reserve arrived and charged into the harbour. There must have been a haze on the river or no lookout, or perhaps it was just Iain’s sense of mischief! My naval battalion leapt from the boats and assaulted the building while the Byzarbian Queen pounded and gatlinged the nearby enemy artillery.

It was a lot of fun, but despite the worried looks on the defenders’ faces, it was not to be. We couldn’t force our way in and took a lot of casualties charging back in again a second time, and that was that. Unfortunately Phil had been unable to take the train station either, despite many assaults, so the attacks came to nothing in the end.

Fortunately we’d already arranged (in the campaign phase) for both the road and rail bridges to the north to be blown by saboteurs on the enemy’s arrival (although we’d hope it would be after we’d already passed) so we still made it to the capital first, taking the scenic route by boat – although presumably it took a few trips!

This meant we’d at least be defending in the big battle on day 2, but what of our allies on the other table…?

Only a few figures still to finish (6 cavalry, a general, a gun and a flag to be precise), and I’ll be done.

Just for once I’d really like to complete everything before the day of departure, but I can’t guarantee it. At least whatever happens I won’t be doing one of my usual 2 depressing last-minute tasks; painting bloody hussars or desperately waiting for the basing to dry! All the latter is done and the last (simple, native) cavalry are being painted in situ for this very reason.

I’ve just finished a flag for my irregular general Lippup Fatti. It’s a clip-art compilation comprising a scimitar, a crescent and an elephant, printed out on paper and coloured in/around. It’ll do, and should look better once the figures are painted..

The pre-weekend campaign has been very entertaining so far and I think it’s fair to say that there’s a lot of confusion, suspicion and back-stabbing going on, which I suspect was Iain’s plan all along. The setting is an 1880s Sudan-esque colonial country called Phetraea, where various imperialist imagi-nations are involved in preparing for a huge rebellion to sweep over them. Medetia is there of course, as are factions from about 8 other interesting and varied countries. There are a couple of new faces this year, which is excellent and they’ll be very welcome.

My force will be reasonably balanced, but fairly modest. Intended mainly for the post-Napoleonic period, my figures are generally too early for this late 19th century setting, but it’s not the sort of gaming event where this really matters. I expect to encounter everything from elephants and zulus, to picklehaubs, sombreros and armed nuns. There’s even a Friday evening pre-game (which better not go on too long into the drinking zone!) where each player takes the field with a character for some competitive wild boar hunting.

I’ve recently managed to finish some artillery crews for my early 19th century forces. These chaps will be coming to Ayton in May, and will mainly see service after that in Sharp Practice games.

Firstly, Fleurian field artillery (Victrix British Napoleonic plastics). Guns to follow, with yellow carriages as per their 18th century predecessors.

Secondly, Fleurian colonial artillery (Foundry Crimean Turks). They’ll be getting guns with red carriages. The officer at the front will be based as a Big Man and I’ll come up with a name and some personality traits for him. Well, he’s got real character hasn’t he?

Next up, probably the Medetian marines to go with the 2 samples I painted a while back.